I've been on vacation, and that was quite nice. After the long weekend I took my mare down to Lethbridge (plus 3 cats), to visit Mom and Dad and the other three horses. My big girl is great in the trailer, but every time I put her in, I worry. I suspect part of it is just me being a worrier, part of it is that I've had some tires blow with her in the trailer, and had to change them. Now that went well, and I have a full set of new tires on the trailer (please people, after 5 or 6 years, just replace your tires. The ones that came with the trailer were that kind of age, which is why they blew. Also, I cannot recommend enough that you have drive up jacks for your trailer. I have a set of two so the trailer remains level, and I changed the tires with the mare in the trailer. She's such a good girl.) This also leads to me checking the pressure on the tires on both the trailer and the tow vehicle religiously, and having an air compressor and inverter so I can run it off the truck. Also highly recommended. Is it overkill that I also have a fire extinguisher, chains, emergency kit, 10 gallons of water....

So, we arrived uneventfully, of course. Now little Maggie normally lives in a palatial private facility, inside. When we go on vacation, she lives in a paddock next to her sister (who was just awful to her, since she's got the baby). The first night she was SURE she wasn't staying out, but she adjusted just fine. She thinks the little guy is lovely, when his Mom actually wasn't trying to keep her from him. He also figured his Auntie Maggie was pretty cool. Which is good because she's going to be his travelling companion. Because she's so good in the trailer, I'm going to take her with him everywhere, so that he can learn it's just fine to be in the trailer.

Speaking of the little guy, we did some mucking about with him. He's not too sure about a plastic bag, but the saddle pad is WAY COOL! He pulled it off over his head, stomped it, chewed on it, and generally had a fabulous time. I don't see much in the way of difficulty in sacking that boy out. He's rather like his Mom, very brave, more likely to march up to something new than run from it. That's a positive. He's had his feet picked daily since he was 3 days old, grooming is a non-issue, we can take him quite a ways from his Mom, no problem. Of course, there's a but. Leading in general is good, but going out in the morning is just too exciting. So, he started the rearing and charging type of thing, nerf bat took care of that, no problem. Then he was stalling, "you can't make me go over that puddle"! Enter the clicker and sugar. THAT was awesome! So, he's on his way. Thank goodness my mother is patient.

Rode little Muffin while I was down there, she was good. She generally is. She's made amazing progress in the last four months, I can't wait to see what next show season brings. We might even be on Second Level movements. We were thinking there might be snow on Thursday, which is when we were going to come home, so we left a day early. No problems coming home either. She was quite happy to be back to her Soft Stall, and was just covered in bedding the next morning.

So, I have to go back to work on Monday. Although I should check my lottery ticket, maybe I don't have to. I only work to pay for my horses. Right now my boy cat is laying next to me. He likes it when Mom is on vacation. Little does he know that we have to get up and do some work.